TY - JOUR
T1 - Goldman on probabilistic inference
AU - Fallis, Don
PY - 2002
Y1 - 2002
N2 - In his recent book, Knowledge in a Social World, Alvin Goldman claims to have established that if a reasoner starts with accurate estimates of the reliability of new evidence and conditionalizes on this evidence, then this reasoner is objectively likely to end up closer to the truth. In this paper, I argue that Goldman's result is not nearly as philosophically significant as he would have us believe. First, accurately estimating the reliability of evidence - in the sense that Goldman requires - is not quite as easy as it might sound. Second, being objectively likely to end up closer to the truth - in the sense that Goldman establishes - is not quite as valuable as it might sound.
AB - In his recent book, Knowledge in a Social World, Alvin Goldman claims to have established that if a reasoner starts with accurate estimates of the reliability of new evidence and conditionalizes on this evidence, then this reasoner is objectively likely to end up closer to the truth. In this paper, I argue that Goldman's result is not nearly as philosophically significant as he would have us believe. First, accurately estimating the reliability of evidence - in the sense that Goldman requires - is not quite as easy as it might sound. Second, being objectively likely to end up closer to the truth - in the sense that Goldman establishes - is not quite as valuable as it might sound.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34547496646&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1023/A:1019644929122
DO - 10.1023/A:1019644929122
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:34547496646
SN - 0031-8116
VL - 109
SP - 223
EP - 240
JO - Philosophical Studies
JF - Philosophical Studies
IS - 3
ER -